Konoha: After
by Kaj-Nrig
Summary: Konoha has moved on, and so have the members of Team Seven, some more than others. (Excerpts posted to get some impressions. Cherry-picked canon.)
1. Chapter 1

Konoha: After  
by Kaj-Nrig

* * *

Note:

This is a standalone excerpt from a larger fic, posted to get some feedback while I get back into the swing of things. (Haven't written, or at least published, anything in years.) I've picked and chosen from the canon, because the canon got real dumb real quick, especially with regards to certain main characters. Please let me know what your impressions are. Thanks.

* * *

Konoha changes as often as the seasons. After the Third Great War, change came to Konoha in the form of a new Hokage, a new economy, new borders, and new elite ninja, many of them children. After Minato Namikaze trapped the Nine-tails inside his son, change to Konoha meant a sudden upswing in political and military strength. No one wished to incur the wrath of a nation with a jinchuuriki at its disposal.

The Fourth Great War came and went, and Konoha changed again. The village was rebuilt, brick by brick and plank by plank. The Hokage stretched her cadre of elite ninja almost to the breaking point; just a month after the final blade swing of the war, a sole chuunin undertook what would have been an S-rank mission meant for a two-jounin team. (Sakura, for her part, more than met the challenge.) For a period of three weeks and two days, the walls and entrances of Konoha were guarded entirely by genin, and in that time they managed to fend off two incursions by Akatsuki remnants.

Not that rank mattered much in the early days of recovery. That was another change: many genin had become chuunin, and chuunin jounin, and many jounin were dead. The training of new shinobi slowly but surely resumed. In the seven years since the war, Konoha has become stronger and more resilient than before.

Some things, some people, were slower to change. Naruto, whom everybody expected to replace Tsunade as Hokage, instead took an extended leave as soon as the war ended. Officially, he is training to become a sage, following in his late sensei's footsteps, but those who know him know better: Sasuke continues to haunt him, even in death.

Kakashi reflects unwillingly on this fact as he stares at the words of Icha Icha. He feels a familiar anger rising up through his gut, prompting him to reach for the Team Seven photograph on his windowsill. Half of the four faces no longer belong, but which half that is, he can't say. What he can say, though, is that very soon now, he will want more and more to smash his fist through the picture. He will fight this temptation until eventually putting the picture back on the windowsill and leaving for the Four Gods Bar instead. He and Sakura will arrive there at the same time, and they will buy a bottle of sake to share at Sai's apartment. This is nothing new. His team has gone on forty-six missions since Naruto disappeared, and the last thirty-nine of them have concluded in this manner, accidentally at first but with more conviction as time went on.

Events transpire as predicted, and as he walks down the darkened Konoha roads with Sakura by his side, Kakashi comes to a realization. "We need to take a picture," he says, his voice cutting through the quiet Konoha night.

"Hm?" Sakura asks.

"We need to take a picture," he repeats. "You, me, and Sai. We need a picture."

Sakura smiles, reaches for his hand, and leans her shoulder into his arm. He doesn't remember when she started doing that or when he started letting her, but it has become part of their routine as well.

"I'll buy a camera," she tells him quietly.

Sai opens the front gate for the two of them, though they both have keys, and leads them upstairs without a word, though they both know the way. Kakashi tells about Tenten and Pakkun over the bottle of warm sake; Sakura admonishes him for his lack of foresight; and Sai appreciates their company mostly in silence. When Kakashi brings up the team photo, Sakura has to very calmly explain to Sai the importance of such things. Sai asks some blunt questions, as is his nature. They finish off the bottle, and then he and Sakura leave.

When they reach the intersection where they would normally part ways, he doesn't let go of her hand, and neither does she let go of his. Instead, their collective gaze travels down the long stretch of road leading to his apartment before turning to each other. "Do you want to stay the night?" she asks, to which he replies, "Okay." This part is also nothing new.

It began... he can't remember exactly when they started sharing her bed (because his isn't big enough), only the awkwardness of that first night; how they stacked pillows and blankets in the middle of the bed to approximate a sense of propriety, and how neither of them slept that night but still rose the next morning feeling giddy, like they had gotten away with something scandalous. And perhaps it will be a scandal, if and when it gets out that a sensei-student pair are sleeping together, however platonically. But Kakashi has never cared overmuch what the world thinks of him, and apparently neither does Sakura.

They sleep back to back, but when Kakashi stirs awake in the middle of the night he finds she has rolled over and snuck her hand around his waist. He doesn't sleep well sometimes, she told him once, and she found it the simplest way to calm him down without waking him. "I don't know about that," he said in reply. "I think maybe you're just using my PTSD as an excuse to fondle me," to which she promptly threw him through a tree.

He laces his hand with hers and listens to the sound of her breathing. Sooner or later, they will consummate their relationship. He knows this as surely as he knows the sun will rise tomorrow. But for now, he is content just to have her at his side, and to be at hers. Today was a good day, he surmises. A very good day for him and his team. Konoha is stronger and more resilient than ever, and so are they.

That part is also nothing new.


	2. Chapter 2

Konoha: After

by Kaj-Nrig

* * *

Note:

I didn't intend to add to this "story," but alas, here we are.

I wrote this, then realized it'd probably be better to omit this from the story proper. I like the scene, though. It's a harmless little bit of fun. I even wrote a second take on the scene before I decided to scrap it for now. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Context: Tenten joins Team Seven at the training grounds because 1) Lee and Gai are off on a mission, and 2) she needs a distraction from the main plot.

Scene may have been influenced by Shippuden clips explaining how Hinata became everyone's waifu 4 laifu. (Also, I confess to having never watched/read Shippuden.)

* * *

As it turns out, Teams Eight and Ten had the same idea as they did, and both have already arrived and littered the grounds with traps and discarded weapons. Akamaru happens to be running out from the cover of the forest when Tenten and company arrive; he greets them with a howl and communicates the current skirmish taking place to Pakkun, who relates it to them: a free-for-all, but (try to) keep collateral damage to a minimum, and the emergency signal is a white flare, plenty of which have been left at the entrance for interested parties.

Almost immediately, Sakura sucks air into her lungs and shouts, "Sakura, Sai, and Tenten! coming to kick your asses!" Then, with a wild "Shannaro!" she leaps into the open field and shatters the earth just in case no one heard her, setting off several nearby explosive tags. Tenten and Sai have only moments to trade glances before kunai fly their way, and they body-flicker into the tree cover. (Pakkun stays with Sakura, for which Tenten allows herself only the smallest twinge of jealousy.)

After twenty frantic minutes of running, hiding, and laying traps, Tenten finds herself facing off against Hinata in the open, her scrolls and weapons lost in the forest. "Never thought I'd get to face off against a Byakugan again," she admits, and both she and Hinata nod at the unspoken sentiment in that sentence.

"I hope he taught you well."

"Don't worry. He taught me everything."

"I don't think he did," Hinata whispers, and Tenten is taken aback for a moment by her quiet self-assuredness. Hinata's story of growth is well-known throughout Konoha, but to actually face the fruit of all that labor is almost intimidating. Hinata wields her hard-won confidence like a weapon.

Hinata doesn't augment her strikes with chakra, but the few blows that land still leave Tenten's limbs feeling numb. She manages to land some hits of her own, though, eventually buckling Hinata's knees just enough for her to leap backward and put some much-needed distance between them.

They both meet eyes as they kneel on the grass nursing their injuries, and one of them starts laughing, and the other joins in soon after.

Tenten rushes at Hinata suddenly, catching the Byakugan user by surprise. They both know she hasn't regained full strength in her legs, but if she has learned anything from growing up with Neji and Lee and Gai, it's how to bully her way past her own body. She manages to catch Hinata with a right hook and a palm to the chin, but the follow-up kick she delivers lacks any strength, and the Hyuuga heir pirouettes like a dancer to her left and delivers seven blows to her midsection that crumple her on the spot. So much for bullying past her body, she thinks as Hinata drops to all fours atop her.

Hinata smiles warmly down at her, and her hair spills down to pool around Tenten's head. "Are you alright, Tenten?" she asks. _She's beautiful._ Tenten's eyes widen ever so slightly at the unbidden thought and whatever reply she has in store comes out as nothing but a breath. She's suddenly glad that their scrimmage already has her flustered, because she would assuredly be blushing right now.

Hinata's brow furrows, and Tenten remembers the two pale irises peering down at her, seeing even the finest movements of her face. She's been found out, and now she IS blushing, and Hinata watches it happen, which only makes her blush faster.

If Tenten didn't know better, she would say Hinata's smile turns positively coy before retreating a couple spaces so she can sluggishly force her way onto her elbows. "Um... Are you alright?" she stammers out stupidly.

Tenten sneaks a glance at Hinata and sees that smile, small as it is, still plastered on her face. "Yes, I'm fine. How's your-" Hinata immediately cuts herself off and rises into a combat stance.

"Yo. Did everyone get started without me?" Kakashi says as he makes his way from the fenced entrance to them, deftly avoiding ground hazards while pocketing a white flare.

"Free-for-all. Try to keep collateral damage to a minimum. The flare's for emergencies," Tenten explains from her spot on the ground.

"Oh-ho. So I guess this means..." He finishes the sentence with a hand gesture between himself and Hinata.

"I believe so, Kakashi-sensei," Hinata answers, maneuvering herself between him and Tenten.

"Because you two..." He gestures similarly between Hinata and Tenten.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you until you can move again," Hinata says to her, and Tenten wants to punch her again and ask her when she developed such sass.

"Won't be long, I promise," she says and means it.

Kakashi nods, then casually reaches up and moves his hitai-ate out of the way of his Sharingan eye.

"It's an honor to spar with you, Kakashi-sensei." Hinata lets herself take a break from the game and bows to Kakashi, who returns the gesture, before she takes her stance again. On some unspoken command, they spring into action. Hinata does not hold back her chakra strikes this time, but neither does Kakashi allow himself within range of those strikes. He sends jutsus at her, clones, even the debris scattered on the field, charging in only when he suspects he might have an opening.

As their dance protracts, Tenten begins to see a pattern, except a blast of fire suddenly strikes perilously close to her. "Watch it!" she yells. "I'm on recovery-"

The rest of her sentence dies on her tongue. She watches keenly as Kakashi engages with Hinata, pulling her in one direction, before tossing a kunai-

"Watch out!" both she and Hinata shout at the same time. Hinata rushes over and plucks the kunai out of the air feet from Tenten's face at the same time Tenten grabs a clump of grass with an explosive on it and tosses it over Hinata's head at Kakashi, who has pounced on the sole Byakugan blind spot.

"Hm..." Kakashi mulls after a strategic retreat. "This is... interesting."

"How are you, Tenten?" Hinata asks, handing her the kunai.

"I can at least flop around now."

"I underestimated Kakashi-sensei's resourcefulness."

"You mean you underestimated how low he could go with his cheap, underhanded tactics."

"Hey, now-"

"Yes, I mean that." Hinata looks back at her and flashes a smile. Tenten gets her feet under her; she can barely move them, but barely is more than not at all.

The battle resumes, and Tenten goes from desperately throwing her body around the field to running full tilt in little time. Any projectiles she hurls Kakashi's ways only serve to inconvenience him, but one well-timed throw gives Hinata the opportunity to stop the chakra flow to his right hand. He retreats and, to their surprise, weaves a jutsu with just his left hand, pulling water from the nearby lake into an opaque wall of ice between the three of them.

"You're cheating," he says to them from behind the ice sheet.

"Yes, we are," Tenten admits, pooling lightning chakra into her kunai. Before she can shatter the ice with it, though, a hand reaches up through the dirt and drags her down to her neck. Kakashi reappears next to her only to dodge out of the way as Hinata leaps up and over her side of the wall. With a burst of chakra, Tenten frees herself from the ground and the two women face off again with the Copy Nin.

"Think you can keep him occupied?" she asks breathlessly.

"I can try," Hinata responds. "Kakashi-sensei is very fast."

"I need to get to his blind spot. I think I have something that'll work."

"In that case..." Hinata charges forward, and from beyond the edge of the crumbling ice wall, another Hinata rushes out. To his credit, Kakashi's surprise lasts only a moment, but in that moment both Hinatas push him onto the defensive.

Hinata strains to keep her chakra usage in check. She has foregone chakra strikes again; maintaining both a shadow clone and the Byakugan takes too much of her concentration to afford it. She keeps enough pressure on Kakashi-sensei that he can't hit back, but he has enough clarity of vision to flare his chakra whenever she hits in order to further dull the effects of her strikes. He has also surely identified the non-Byakugan user as the clone. It's only a matter of time before he gets rid of that and the odds swing back in his favor.

The familiar poof of smoke sounds, and Hinata stumbles clumsily; the flood of chakra and memories is never a particularly pleasant experience for her. Kakashi-sensei takes advantage of her misstep and soon enough sweeps her legs out from under her. She lies there, panting with exhaustion and relishing the feel of the grass, and Kakashi-sensei himself breathes heavily above her.

"Where'd the other one go?" he wonders aloud, only for both eyes to widen at a familiar sound.

"Dynamic..." Tenten throws her entire weight into the kick, launching forward with all the strength her jelly legs can manage. Kakashi only has time to turn one shocked eye to her before she connects her sandaled foot to his face. "...Entry!"

She even sticks the landing and, most importantly, The Pose: toothy and victorious smile gleaming down at Kakashi with a thumbs up to boot. "Youth!" she proudly exclaims.

"Youth," Hinata quietly cheers, and a thoroughly drained and giddy Tenten plops down to join them.

"Whooo!" A loud chorus of cheers erupts. The three of them turn to the treeline, where everyone else has gathered to watch the fight.

Ino, Kiba, and Choji offer up their color commentary, Sai and Shino send out ink creatures and bugs to help gather up the mess they've tossed about, and Sakura walks up to check on them with Pakkun in tow.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: The events leading up to "Chapter 1." This is getting cut almost entirely from the story as well. Shame. :/ No Kakasaku goodness here, only Tenten and Pakkun being cute. Enjoy.

* * *

Tenten first met Pakkun at her shop on the edge of town several weeks ago, before her mission to Kurozu-cho. She spotted him from the corner of her eye as she worked at her workshop grinder, trying to place his name but realizing she had only ever known him as one of Kakashi's ninken. "Don't mind me. Just learning the new spots of Konoha," he explained, and was gone within minutes.

He visited again a few days later, and dug up a sickle on the far edge of her yard; its blade was dull and rusted, and the handle had rotted into mush since the end of the war. She placed it aside and meant to turn it over to Archives, but the Kurozu-cho mission sidetracked her the very next day.

That was two weeks ago, and she only remembers his visits and the sickle now that she is opening the front door of her home-cum-shop. "Damn it," she says to herself. "Should have stopped by Archives while I was there." She wonders idly if Kakashi's dog was disappointed to find her gone whenever he next came by. Judging by the now-empty plate she had stocked with treats and left on her front porch the day of her mission, he can't have been too sad.

She wants nothing more than to sink into her couch upstairs, order some ramen delivery, and while away the rest of the day in peace and quiet. The unexpected incident at the gate and subsequent interview with Tsunade took more out of her than she cares to admit; she finds herself on edge, constantly keeping an ear out for a call from the hospital. When she does trudge up the stairs to her living room, she only bothers to unseal her backpack and grab a small scroll of dulled weapons before heading back downstairs to her forge. Nothing has calmed her nerves and allowed her to refocus quite like some busywork sharpening her tools.

She places her phone on a workbench far enough away from where she'll be working that it won't interfere or distract but also audible in the case of a hospital call, and then gets to work. She has barely gathered the sharpening stones when the pug shows up again. What did Kotetsu call him?

"Hey, you. Did you get the snacks I left out?"

He nods, and she wonders if that's a learned gesture or if dogs also communicate yeses and nos the same way as humans. "Should've left more," he opines, to which she just laughs and tosses him one more. He lets her pet him in return, then he flits away into the forest again.

She works through all but one of her blades by the time he reappears later that afternoon. "Pakkun," he tells her matter-of-factly.

"Tenten. Nice to meet you."

They shake.

"You're one of Kakashi's ninken, aren't you?" she wonders idly, to which he nods. "What's had you coming around these parts recently?"

"There's a new lake down that way," he explains, pointing with his nose. "Been digging up lots of weapons from the war. Seems the survey teams never went into that area."

That recalls her the sickle he gave her the other day, which she retrieves. "I haven't seen Kakashi around town," she says as she wraps the blade in newspaper.

"He was on a mission."

"Even before I left?"

Pakkun shakes his head. Again, she wonders about learned gestures. "Different mission. They got back the day after you left, then got another one a few days later."

"So why are you here now?"

"He wanted me to guard his apartment."

"And you're not guarding his apartment because..."

"He never leaves enough food."

"You poor thing," Tenten mourns patronizingly and pinches his stubby cheeks. "Tell you what: Let me finish what I'm doing and you can walk me back to town for some grub. I haven't eaten since I got back, either."

He lets her maneuver his face up and down. She returns to work and he wanders about the property quietly.

"Where's your pack?" he asks after a time. "I can barely smell them."

"Oh, Lee and Gai? They're with Yamato somewhere up north of here. I think it's a long-term demolition project. They won't be back for another month. There we go." She hangs the last of her sharpened kunai on the wall and grabs her phone and keys. "All set. You ready?"

* * *

"...and since Sakura-chan wouldn't clear me, Kakashi had me stay behind to watch his place," Pakkun finishes.

"I thought Hana took care of you dogs?" Tenten asks as she looks up and down the stalls for something to eat.

"Eh. Sakura-chan insisted."

"She 'insisted,' huh?"

Pakkun blows a puff of air through the flaps of his cheeks. "She's just protective."

"I can understand that. Hey, there's Hakase. Let's go."

Hakase was part of the influx of workers that helped restore Konoha in the immediate aftermath of the war; instead of leaving once the reconstruction was done, he opted instead to open up the fifth store in what he called his okonomiyaki empire.

(The other four, he would explain if asked, are run by his two sons, daughter, and daughter-in-law, and they have worked tirelessly to become the most popular okonomiyaki franchise in the Five Nations. Tenten doesn't know or care about any of that; he makes delicious okonomiyaki, which is good enough for her.)

"Well, if it isn't the steel maiden herself," he greets upon seeing her take a seat. "And Pakkun. How's the leg?"

"Fine. Sakura-chan worries too much."

"Ah, she's just protective."

They all share a look that communicates their mutual understanding on the matter.

Tenten orders a pie for herself and a salmon fillet for Pakkun. Customers come and go, many of them giving her and the pug curious glances, and Hakase eventually takes to fabricating a story about the two of them, which is just as well for Tenten. He tells stories the way her Yawg Zaj did, crafting tall tales full of adventure and excitement out of the most common everyday threads. Yawg was never so good with the food, though. She still remembers the charcoal briquettes he called roast squirrel. What she would have given then to taste okonomiyaki as good as this.

The thought makes her order one more to take with her and asks Hakase to pile on everything as high as he can.

* * *

Excepting special circumstances usually involving convoluted clan politics, ninja are cremated and their remains buried with the weapons they carried in life. "All the better to protect themselves in the afterlife," Gai explained to her once. At the time, Tenten thought it a silly practice - why let perfectly good steel go to rust? - but she has a better appreciation for the practice now, especially when the effort required on the part of the living is so little.

"We'll need you to fill out this form," the chuunin at the Records desk explains as he quickly seals the sickle away into a scroll and writes something on the outside of it. Tenten glances up and down the questionnaire he just handed her and frowns.

 _Describe the circumstances of your coming into possession of the item. Include as much detail as possible (including but not limited to the date, time, weather conditions, soil conditions, chakra signatures, etc.)._

Describe the condition of the item upon your coming into possession of it. Include as much detail as possible (including but not limited to environmental damage, broken or missing pieces, chakra signatures, fuinjutsu seals, any significant markings that do not appear to be related to "day-to-day" battle damage, etc.).

Describe ALL events that transpired in regards to the item between the time you came into possession of the item and the time you turned the item over to Konoha Public Records Department. Include time stamps to the best of your ability and/or recollection.

She looks back up at him and he says automatically, as if he's repeated this many, many times already, "It's standard procedure. You just need to provide enough information to give Archives a good idea where you found it and what kind of shape it was in. The most important thing they need is the district number here..." He taps the relevant space near the top of the page. "...which you can find here." He pulls out a village district map, over which the new Konoha has been superimposed. She eyes the map for a moment, then scrawls the number 13 down.

"Thanks..."

"Fujitaka, Tenten-san."

"Just 'Tenten' is fine." Tenten has never been able to acclimate to honorifics. She forced herself to learn to append -sama when speaking to the Hokage out of propriety's sake, but aside from that, she finds they serve little purpose other than to muddy up names. "Thank you, Fujitaka. I'll be back this evening to drop this off, then."

"Ah, no need." Fujitaka scribbles a thumb-sized character into the top corner of the form and sends sends some chakra into it, then performs a similar technique on the scroll. "Just unlock this seal, and the jutsu will transport the form into the scroll. We'll take care of the rest."

Tenten nods and thumbs the seal. "Pretty neat. I wish the Missions desk had something like this. Whose idea was it?"

"Kakashi-san's," he says with the same proud affect that everybody seems to use when they mention that particular name. "He helped restore what was left of Archives after the war, and bits and pieces of the system he set up here have been adopted all throughout Konoha. It's really amazing."

"I'm sure it is," Tenten acquiesces. "Anyway, thanks again, Fujitaka. Come on, Pakkun. We should get going."

* * *

Kakashi's apartment is... cozy, to put it one way. A single room, with a bed taking up a good chunk of the floor space near a sizable window through which she has just entered. Tenten gives the bed a cursory bounce and, finding it suitably springy, sits down and removes her sandals. The dog food, which she procured from a shop on the way from the Hokage Tower, rests on the window ledge next to a picture of Kakashi's Team Seven and a small cactus plant. Across from the bed is a desk and a small refrigerator unit. Pakkun quietly makes his way through the window and closes it behind him with a hind leg.

"I feel unclean," Tenten mumbles. "Breaking into people's homes wasn't exactly on my list of things to do today. Explain to me why you never received a key again." Pakkun sniffs and paws at the dog food in response, to which Tenten snorts and sets the bag atop the refrigerator. "You just ate," she admonishes before pulling the slip of paper from a sleeve and examining it again.

Her eye glances from the sheet of paper to the desk. No pens. They must be in the drawer. But she should get going; it would be rude to stay any longer now that her errand has finished. But she should also get this paperwork and the Kurozu-cho report done as soon as possible...

She pulls the chair back and sits down. "Do you mind if I stay a while? I want to get this filled out while things are still fresh-ish," she says to Pakkun's curious look.

"Pens are in the top drawer," he answer before curling up on the bed.

She retrieves a pen, holds it to the paper, and begins writing.

* * *

"You know-"

"Gah!" Tenten snaps awake at the sudden voice, blinking as quickly as she can to regain her eyesight and wiping at the drool that has dried on her cheek.

"-I honestly never expected to come home to a girl doing her homework at my desk."

Tenten rubs the sleep out of her eyes; she still can't figure out who is speaking or where she is or-oh. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. What time is it?" she murmurs.

"About 9 o' clock," Kakashi answers. He sounds amused.

"Sorry," she repeats, looking around. In her shock she toppled the desk chair and threw the Archives form to the floor. "I brought Pakkun some food, and... and I had paperwork to do, so I figured I'd... I must have fallen asleep." As she picks up the chair, she adds, "This is really embarrassing."

Kakashi chuckles. "You got him food?" he asks as he gets the crumbled form for her.

She nods in embarrassment and accepts the paper while stepping around him to get to her sandals. "He came around my shop and we started talking. He said he didn't have enough food."

"I left you plenty of food," Kakashi says to the pug.

Pakkun pads to the refrigerator and opens it with one paw – an exceptional feat considering he has no thumbs – and points out the lack of contents within.

Tenten laughs lightly at Kakashi's expression. "It wasn't a problem," she insists.

"Thank you, Tenten," Kakashi replies.

"You're welcome," she answers, and they stand there awkwardly for a moment longer before she makes for the door. "Well, I should go. It's getting late. Good night, Kakashi. Good night, Pakkun."

"Can't she stay, Boss?" Pakkun begs. "I like her."

Tenten makes a show of bending down to fix her sandals in order to hide the slight flush of her cheeks from Kakashi. Innocent as the suggestion is, thirteen-year old her would have had a field day with the thought of spending the night with Kakashi.

"She let you eat tuna, didn't she? I can smell it on your breath."

Pakkun flashes a cheeky grin at Kakashi, and Tenten can't help but do the same. "I like her," the pug repeats.

"Sorry, Pakkun. I really should go. I'll make sure to have some more snacks the next time you visit, though."

Pakkun's tail wags when he ambles up to her feet. "Deal, missy." He offers her a paw, which she takes.

She turns back to Kakashi, who merely shrugs, and she bows from the hallway. "Good night, Kakashi."

"Good night, Tenten."

* * *

Kakashi waits for Tenten to find the stairwell at the far end of the hallway before closing the door. Then he sighs and changes out of his mission gear into a clean set of clothes and flops into bed, not even bothering with the blankets. From the windowsill, he feels for an Icha Icha book and opens it to a random page. "How's your leg?" he asks.

"It was fine when you left. Sakura-chan worries too much." Pakkun jumps onto the bed and nips lightly at Kakashi's free hand, and Kakashi pets the pug absently. They settle into a familiar, comfortable routine.

"Seems you made a friend today."

"She's nice. I like her."

Kakashi can't help but smirk.

Pakkun lets his tongue loll out as Kakashi scratches the top of his head. "How'd the mission go?"

"Aoi-hime's marriage went off without incident, as far as she's aware."

"How were Sakura-chan and Sai?"

"They were fine," he says and leaves it at that. Pakkun nods and stays by Kakashi's side for a while longer before hopping off the bed. They bid their farewells and the pug disappears in a cloud of smoke, leaving Kakashi alone.

Konoha changes as often as the seasons. After the Third Great War...


End file.
